News / Deal done for Scarborough deficit

The deal to address the £20.9m historic debt at Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust is one of the first to emerge from strategic health authorities (SHAs) dealing with financially challenged trusts. Others are expected to be published soon.

SHAs were asked by the Department of Health during the summer to come up with realistic solutions for the 17 remaining financially challenged trusts named in May following the abolition of resource accounting and budgeting for trusts.

In the wake of this announcement, the Department said it had agreed long-term loans with most financially troubled trusts, but there were 18 (now 17 following the acquisition of Good Hope NHS Trust by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust) that could not afford the repayments or could only make the repayments over a long time.

All were provided with loans or public dividend capital to get them through to year end pending the SHA reviews.

Scarborough trust chief executive Iain McInnes said it must reach the same performance levels as its peers by achieving financial balance, making a further 2.5% in efficiency savings and fulfilling its contractual obligations. ‘Providing we deliver on these obligations, we will not be required to make repayments that in any way adversely impact on clinical services now or in the future,’ he added.